BT's Restaurant — Restaurant in Radford City

Tweeks Home Town Food Review: So we went to the "student pub" next to Radford University on a Sunday night just bc it was the only thing open at 8pm anywhere in Radford. We popped in.. and waited a couple minutes for the girl behind the wall to pop her head out and say, "Oh.. you waiting?".. As we walked by the wall we saw a guy fixing his hair that she just appeared to have been making out with.. Ewww... yeahh.. wow.. so gross & inappropriate in a restaurants. That should have been a sign to turn around.. but I was starving so we sat down and ordered drinks and appetizer.

The same make-out girl who seated us took our order. At first she slurred her words so badly I thought she was def.. so I loudly enunciated my order before realizing that she wasn't deaf.. but she may have been on some kind of substance.. Who knows..

While we were getting our food, two other employee guys were in the entrance hallway playing games of strength and balance.. falling over and laughing like they were at a party.. and there was an employee smoking like 5ft outside the front entrance, so we would occasionally catch a waft of cigarette smoke. Wow.. Real nice.. I wasn't sure if this was an food establishment or a frat house. Okay.. enough about the unprofessional children and atmosphere.. (the place needs an adult manager to snap their employees into shape).

Okay.. Now.. The Food. For a quick appetizer, we had the spinach artichoke dip. It was pretty good. Very rich, and a large portion too (ran out of chips before dip). It came with like 8 small pieces of pita and the rest of the tray was corn chips. Wish it was all pita. But whatever. I was starving.

My wife got some kind of super thick patty melt on rye that looked greasy but good (pub food after all) and tots, as sandwich trays include one side. And I got the fried chicken tender platter (which I never order), bc they seemed to be be very proud of their hand battered tenders.. Trays come with two sides so I got them with fries (which were "okay") and a Caesar salad. The salad was also okay , though not mixed well.. but the tenders were actually pretty good. A dark, almost brick red double dipped coating that had just a touch of some kind of spice.. with side dips of traditional Buffalo and Sweet Thai Chili are the two dips I chose. The Buffalo was lacking, but I liked the sweet Thai chili. I would get the tenders again.. though I probably won't return. The staff is what really brought this place down from a three-star to just two. I wouldn't bring my family or kids in this place without sanitizer and maybe a Hep-C shot, as I doubt the staff could pass...

When I got to BT's, I didn't know what to make of it. It's your typical college bar/grill style restaurant with about as many flat screen TVs as they have lights — and every screen was playing "the game" on mute. I got a table and noted that it seemed rather busy. In fact, I was mentally picking stars off my review when it took nearly 10 minutes for me to get to order a drink (and another good while for it to arrive). Being busy is fine, but getting a drink to start me off should be fairly straightforward.

But once the drink arrived, my experience did a 180. My waiter was friendly/attentive, my food arrived almost immediately after I ordered it, and nothing on the order was incorrect despite the place being packed to the gills. My food was delicious, cooked exactly as I had ordered it, and the proportions were generous for the price. The specials are varied, and the soup of the day was absolutely fantastic.

But what really won me over was watching as the table of 8 got up and left the table a mess. The waiter came over to clean up, and picked up the tabs. He waved down a coworker, and I heard the second waiter say "Looks like they stiffed you. Sorry man." The waiter replied with "They didn't even finish their food." If you get stiffed on an 8 person tab, and the first thing you think about is whether or not the group ate enough... You're a good freaking person. I was so impressed that I wasn't paying full attention after I paid and accidentally forgot my card. My waiter chased me around the corner to return it rather than let me realize my error in due time. 2 for 2 on staffing, BT's.

In summation: BT's has an average atmosphere, with a pretty rough dinnertime rush. But if you stick it out, the food is great and the staff is somehow even better. They really earned back that 5th star, and I'll be excited to...

On Sunday evening, September 1, 2019, this establishment had the dubious honor of being the first restaurant that I've walked out on that I can ever recall. We visited on the strength of positive reviews and also wanting a change of venue on our visit (we spend the night in Radford frequently on our road trips to and from Atlanta). Upon entry, there was no host, and we were seated by an employee passing through who happened to notice us. After seating and an inordinately long wait, a server who was passing by asked us if we were being waited on. After our negative response, she remarked, "Oh, then I guess I am." We received our drinks after a suitable interval, but then waited for 20 minutes for the waitress to return to take our order. My wife, who had waited tables at four establishments in her younger years, was highly disapproving and we decided to walk out. We provided feedback on the poor organization to the manager on duty, who was apologetic and indicated that they had been slammed by a larger than normal crowd that evening and they were short-staffed (when we were seated, there were three group tables with diners (one of which departed while we waited for our server) and nobody in the booths at 8:30 p.m. - shouldn't have been taxing). Our "accidental waitress" told us earlier that BT was under new ownership. Hopefully they can get organized and BT will not henceforth stand for "B Team". After leaving BT, we made a beeline for Macado's, where we can count on...